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Eight arrested, gun recovered in Roslindale after van driver almost hits cruiser

When Boston Police officers tried to stop a van whose driver almost swerved into them on Washington Street just past South Street last night, the van came to a halt and eight men got out and tried to run away, police say.

Some of the men even climbed the roof of the Advance Auto Parts store in what turned out to be a futile attempt to escape, police say.

The incident began around 10:40 p.m. when officers patrolling Washington Street spotted the van plow through a red light at South Street and Firth Road. And then it swerved across the yellow lines right at them, police say. The officers made a quick U-turn, chased the car down and called for reinforcements. They managed to pull the car over in front of the entrance to the commuter-rail parking lot in Roslindale Square.

After a large search through the woods between the stores of Washington Street and homes up on Taft Hill Terrace, police managed to round up all eight of the van's occupants. All - a man from Jamaica Plain, a man from Mattapan, four Boston teenagers and two Randolph juveniles - were charged with using the van, registered to the Randolph school department, without authority. The driver faces additional charges for his bad driving, police say.

After the eight were nabbed, police found a loaded Sierra 6 .22 caliber revolver under a car near where the van stopped, police say.

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Comments

"All were charged with using the van without authority."

I have no idea what that means. You need 'authority' to ride in a van? It's an arrestable offense?

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I will take anything I can get to see these guys go to jail. weird sounding crimes does the job.
Note-they will probably not face any jail time here in the state of MA

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One guy might have had a gun. What did the other seven do?

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People who mock our protectors don't get it. 8 dummies, 1 gun, 1 van and yet they still couldn't escape our Blue Knights. A job well done.

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This happens when someone uses a vehicle without permission, but does not intend to steal it permanently. These guys probably had access to this vehicle for work, but were not allowed to use it for the purposes they were using it for. If they all conspired to use this vehicle for the same reason, they can all be charged with the crime.

This is a common charge when family members "borrow" other family members cars without permission.

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You are wrong Mr.Pete it is a charge given like when they find drugs in a car and none of the occupant fess up to it. What happens everyone gets the charge.
Same case here the police don't know which 1 of the 8 initially stole it so all get charged with u.w.a
It has nothing to do with borrowing..lol a family members car..or access to the van from work..you really think they have jobs...hmmm..
go read a law book buddy....

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If there are drugs in the car, they can just charge everyone with possession of drugs, and if the car was reported stolen, they can charge everyone ewith receiving stolen property. Guns are different, and only one person will usually get charged unless there is some larger conspiracy involved.

In this case, they used the use without authority charge because that's probably what they did within the statute.

I used the family example because that is the most common use of this charge.

(I've also arrested, charged, and seen how these two charges are used in court, so I've done more than just read a law book about it, I've actually seen how courts rule on it)

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Imagine it was your van. You wake up this morning and not only is it gone from your driveway, but the cops are at your door with a bunch of questions about why it had just been used to almost run over another cop. That's just fine by you? The cops should tell you, it's ok, we just let the eight guys and their gun take a cab home?

The van is probably stolen, but there's either no proof the guys inside are the ones who actually stole it or there's no proof that they had an intent to permanently deprive the owner (a relative maybe) of it. So, yes, charge them with using a motor vehicle without authority because none was the registered owner and the registered owner didn't give any of them permission to take, use, or even enter it.

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The van belonged to the Randolph school department. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm going to speculate here that these lads "borrowed" the van for a little ride after everybody went home for the day there. Since the van was not reported stolen, they couldn't be charged with receiving stolen property.

Allegedly, of course.

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BPD has a few additional details up, including names of non-minors: http://bpdnews.com/news/2014/5/22/daily-dose-of-great-police-work-eight-...

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